Exit Music: For the End of Time

Exit Music: For the End of Time opens with a thought‑provoking and unsettling question: if you knew the world would end in one hour, what music would you want to hear? For guest pianist and MSU alumnus Sergei Kvitko, that question grew out of performing music for moments of both farewell and celebration. Reflecting on these works, Kvitko shaped this program as a point of reflection—one that considers which pieces stay with us when time feels especially short.

The entire Artist-Faculty and Guest Recital Series is sponsored by WKAR.

Program Note

The idea for this program was born out of two existential questions. As a church organist at the First Presbyterian Church in Lansing, MI, for almost 30 years, I have to play a lot of funeral and wedding services. It is always fascinating to me how people select the music they want to hear at these very different but equally special events. Not to sound morbid, but I started thinking: what would I want to “hear” at my funeral service? What IS my favorite music? And the other question – If I knew that the world would end in an hour, what would I want to play, what would I want to listen to? Thinking of my favorite pieces of music, from Winterreise to Mahler’s Adagietto, and from Radiohead and Björk to Bach and Mozart, I quickly realized that none of these works were written for piano. The idea of a recital comprised entirely of transcriptions of the most beautiful music was born, and the work of selecting the pieces and, in some cases, commissioning them or arranging them myself started in earnest. The program presented here is the result of that endeavor.